Meru Betiri National Park

Meru Betiri covers around five hundred and eighty square kilometres of lowland rainforest and coast on the south side of East Java, and its place in conservation history is bleak: this is where the Javan tiger was last reliably recorded, in the 1970s, and where searches through the 1980s failed to find any, after which the subspecies was declared extinct - the park was in fact created partly to protect the last of them. Occasional claimed sightings still surface and are not accepted. What is here now includes leopard, banteng, and Sukamade beach, one of the more important green turtle nesting sites in Java with a conservation station running nightly patrols and hatchling releases. Rafflesia zollingeriana, an endemic parasitic flower, blooms unpredictably in the forest. Access is rough.

What you actually see

• Where the Javan tiger ended - the last reliable records, in the 1970s.
• Sukamade turtle beach - green turtles nesting nightly, with a conservation station.
• Endemic rafflesia - Rafflesia zollingeriana, flowering unpredictably in the forest.
• A rough south coast - lowland forest reaching the Indian Ocean.

When to go

May to September; nesting runs much of the year. Two days.

Honest expectations

Access is genuinely rough - river crossings and four-wheel-drive tracks. Turtle viewing is at night and nothing is guaranteed. Facilities are basic. Malaria has been present in the area.

Nearby

Alas Purwo is east; Jember and Banyuwangi are the road access towns.